Brod / the Ship / La Nave: A Floating Pavilion for Croatia at the Venice Biennale
Croatian participation at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition at la Biennale di Venezia consists of three components: a floating pavilion, the exhibition at the Arsenale, and a publication. The Pavilion is designed by a group of 15 leading Croatian architects, who have made the recent Croatian architecture visible on the global scene. Instead of working in the usual formats of their practices and presenting speculative projects, they decided to work together on a single proposal.
Brod / The Ship / La Nave
The Floating Pavilion is built on an existing barge with dimensions of 10m x 20m x 3m. The pavilion structure is in the form of a cargo of 32 tons of welded wire mesh, with more than 40 layers spaced so that they form a solid volume with approximate dimensions of 19m x 9m x 5,5m. Inside the volume is a carved out space shaped by varying contours that form the main space as well as protrusions and openings toward the outside. Almost invisible form a distance, the structure reveals itself with different densities of steel mesh, transparencies, and vision lines, forming stunning visual effects and experience of space by very simple means. The Croatian pavilion is towed by a barge from the shipyard in Kraljevica to the port of Rijeka, to be presented to the public on 21 August 2010, and on to Venice to be moored at the main pier during the opening of the Biennale.
The Exhibition
Inside the Croatian exhibition space, the project documentation center has been set up in the form of cargo boxes printed with the records of the design process, the construction of the pavilion at the 280-year-old shipyard in Kraljevica, and its journey across the Adriatic. Lana Cavar and Narcisa Vukojević are responsible for graphic design of the exhibition, while Vjeran Šalomon made the audio installation.
The Publication
Also as cargo, the project publication is presented in the form of six loose printed sheets with photo documentation, which - when folded and bound make a 96 page book for everybody to take. The concept and the production of the publication is by Lana Cavar and Narcisa Vukojević. Marko Golub conducted the interviews with the authors.
Fact Sheet
Project name
Pavilion.hr
project number
1039
program
public, culture
status
completed
project
2010 - 2010
Construction
2010 - 2010
Size
149 m²
volume
800 m³
Footprint
149 m²
client
Ministry of culture, Republic of Croatia
Commissioner
Leo Modrčin
Project Team
Saša Begović, Marko Dabrović, Igor Franić, Tatjana Grozdanić Begović, Petar Mišković, Silvije Novak, Veljko Oluić, Helena Paver Njirić, Lea Pelivan, Toma Plejić, Goran Rako, Saša Randić, Idis Turato, Pero Vuković, Tonči Žarnić
Organizer
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka
Maritime Consultant
Miljenko Gržalja
Structural Engineering
Zvonomir Sabljak
Naval Architecture
ST Engineering - Nicola Ferrari
Management
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka - Jerica Ziherl; Venice on-site coordination - Nataša Radović
Sponsors
3.Maj Shipyard, Kraljevica Shipyard, Jadranski pomorski servis, AVC
Photography
Domagoj Blažević, Želimir Gržančić
